1. Technical Field
The present invention is related generally to an apparatus and method for manufacturing nails. More particularly, the invention relates to such an apparatus and method which forms the nails in a relatively rapid manner, especially nails with circular heads which are centered relative to the shaft of the nail.
2. Background Information
Amongst the various nail forming machines which have been used over the years, there are those which form nails having heads which are circular and those which form nails having heads which are non-circular. Generally, the nails with the circular heads are formed so that the circular outer perimeter of the head is concentric with the circular or cylindrical outer surface of the shaft of the nail whereas the nails having non-circular heads have heads which are generally oval shaped and which are offset more to one side of the nail shaft. With respect to nail forming machines currently available, those which form the nails with circular heads typically have a slower production rate than those which form nails with non-circular heads. The machines which form nails with circular heads typically have a wire feeder and cutter which feeds a wire piece between a pair of jaws which clamp a wire piece therebetween while a punch assembly punches one end of the nail to deform that end into the circular head, after which the jaws move apart from one another to allow the newly formed nail to be ejected therefrom. The wire feeder and cutter then feed another wire piece between the jaws to be clamped and punched.
One of the types of machines which is used to form nails with non-circular heads utilizes a pair of flat rotating clamping wheels which generally overlap one another so that their flat sides are angled somewhat relative to one another and which respectively carry multiple jaws adjacent the outer perimeters thereof having formed therein wire piece carrying grooves each of which is perpendicular to and lies along a respective radius of the rotational axis of the given clamping wheel. Because these clamping wheels and their axes of rotation are angled relative to one another, the outer perimeters thereof and the corresponding jaws are adjacent one another adjacent a head forming position and somewhat spaced apart from one another on the opposite side of the wheels. The feeding and cutting assembly thus feeds wire pieces between jaws when they are relatively adjacent one another so that the jaws carry the wire pieces to the head forming position, where the nail heads are formed by a swaging roller which is rotatably mounted and has a circular outer perimeter adjacent the outer perimeters of the clamping wheels. Thus, the outer perimeter of the swaging roller sequentially rolls along the ends of the wire pieces to form the non-circular heads thereon as each wire piece moves through the head forming position.
Given the types of machines described above, there is a need in the art for a nail forming machine which is configured to rapidly produce nails having circular heads. The present invention provides such a machine and method while addressing various concerns in the art.